World Cup ties give China impossible dilemma

BEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) - China coach Ratomir Dujkovic
said forcing his team to play their World Cup qualifiers before
the end of June presents him with an impossible dilemma as he
tries to balance the interests of the senior and Olympic teams.

A report on the China Football Association (CFA) website said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had
demanded that all six qualifiers against Australia, Iraq and
Qatar be played more than a month before the Beijing Olympics.

That schedule puts pressure on Serb Dujkovic who took over
the Olympic team last October before being given overall control
of the senior team when Zhu Guanghu was sacked in September,
with compatriot Vladimir Petrovic working under him.

'I can find no way out ... I must concentrate on the
Olympics but I can't put aside the senior team as I'm the
general manager ... If the national team fails to qualify, the
Olympic team might lose the support of the Chinese people...

'If Petrovic and I cannot get through the group stage I can't
and don't want to imagine what will happen ... the problem is
how to choose and I have no time.

'I can't make the decision to give up any side, both have a
big influence on the future of China's soccer. If I have no
choice, I will have to put both teams together.'

Fixtures for the World Cup qualifiers, the third stage of
Asian qualifying for the 2010 tournament in South Africa, have
not been officially released. Nobody from the Asian Football
Confederation was immediately available to comment.

Dujkovic has been set a target of getting China to the
quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament, which takes place in
Beijing and four other cities from Aug. 6 to 23 next year.

China have qualified only once for the World Cup, in 2002,
and their chances of getting to South Africa were hit when they
were drawn in the toughest Asian group last Sunday